(Obviously, this entry is horribly provisional with it being unknown what sanctions effecting the result may or may not be taken against Ferrari by the WMSC.)

Below is a comparison of the World Championship positions for this year’s points (left), last year’s points-system (middle) and the older 10-6-4-3-2-1 approach (right). Ties are decided by countback.

1

Hamilton

157

Hamilton

65

Hamilton

49

2

Button

143

Button

58

Webber

43

3

Webber

136

Vettel

55

Button

43

4

Vettel

136

Webber

53

Vettel

41

5

Alonso

123

Alonso

49

Alonso

37

6

Rosberg

94

Rosberg

36

Massa

20

7

Kubica

89

Kubica

35

Rosberg

19

8

Massa

85

Massa

34

Kubica

18

9

Schumacher

38

Schumacher

13

Schumacher

7

10

Sutil

35

Sutil

11

Barrichello

5

The order of the top-ten in the World Championship is unchanged despite Ferrari’s upsurge. It is clear that the quartet of drivers for McLaren and Red Bull, with Alonso striving for their coat-tails, are the first-division contenders. Rosberg, Kubica and Massa look to be fighting it out for the next division with a huge gap to the rest. Whatever one thinks of today’s decision to favour Alonso over Massa, even if Ferrari are broadly the fastest team for the rest of the season, it is a tall order for Alonso to catch and pass the four drivers ahead, with a fairly close points scoring system and the expectation Vettel, Webber, Hamilton and Button will be regularly finishing top-six, and grabbing wins where they can. If Ferrari are contending for wins and top-positions from now on with RBR and McLaren, this will probably be in the Woking team’s favour as Red Bull need quite a few wins and one-twos to overhaul the McLaren drivers.

The order for last year’s points is much the same except for being slightly kinder to Vettel. There is movement in the 10-6-4-3-2-1 scheme. Webber hangs on above Button as before with his three wins. Massa gets more reward for his two seconds and a third. Rosberg has had three third-places, Kubica a second place in Australia plus third at Monaco.

These are the points if given to engines:

Engine

Score

Averageper Team

1

Mercedes

479

159·7

2

Renault

368

184·3

3

Ferrari

233

77·7

4

Cosworth

31

7·8

No points for Cosworth. Ferrari scored 43 for first and second with zero help from Force India and Sauber. Renault scored 30, with Vettel and Webber in the top six, and both Renault drivers chipping in. Mercedes also had four contributors, from McLaren and Mercedes for 28. Ferrari made a 15-point gain on Mercedes, but with a 246-deficit and eight to go, would need to average beating them by over thirty points a race to win this.

The scores by nationality of drivers are:

Nation

Points

ScoringDrivers

1

Germany

305

5

2

Britain

300

2

3

Australia

136

1

4

Spain

126

2

5

Brazil

114

2

6

Poland

89

1

7

Japan

15

1

8

Italy

12

1

9

Russia

7

1

10

Switzerland

7

1

Britain gained a single point over Germany, with Button and Hamilton totalling 22 to the 21 of Vettel, Rosberg and Schumacher. No change in order except Russia squeezing ahead of Switzerland on countback, after Petrov’s tenth place. With Alonso’s win and Ferrari’s new pace, Webber’s chance of singlehandedly holding Australia in third looks slimmer than before.

Thank you to Pat W’s suggestion that the “Nations Cup” count only the top two finishers, as he remembers that CART used to do. This set me thinking and I decided to go for a similar idea, somewhat reminiscent of the scoring system that used to be used in the earlier years of the Constructor’s World Championship, of only counting the score of the highest driver in a race for each nation. I also decided to use 10-6-4-3-2-1, partly because I think it a better scoring regime, partly because it meant less work. Thus, for example, the McLaren 1-2 in China would give Britain 10 points for the win, nothing for second, and Rosberg’s third place would give Germany 4 points, with nothing for Vettel’s sixth place. Incidentally, only for Monaco did six different nationalities fill the top-six.

Nation

Points

1

Britain

64

2

Germany

52

3

Australia

43

4

Spain

37

5

Brazil

25

6

Poland

18

7

Japan

1

Obviously, the big difference is this gives Great Britain the lead, but Germany have more chance of fighting back than if I scored the two top finishers for each nation.